Texas biodiesel producer sentenced to 10 years for massive biodiesel fraud

A federal judge in Texas, US, has sentenced the owner of several biodiesel companies to 10 years imprisonment and to pay $138 million (€125m) in restitution for high-profile biofuels fraud.

Philip Joseph Rivkin, who is also known as Felipe Poitan Arriaga, pleaded guilty to creating and selling more than 60 million fake biodiesel credits since 2009 under the name of Green Diesel.

Rivkin faked the production of millions of gallons of biodiesel at a Houston-based facility, for which he sold the Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) to unsuspecting customers as per the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) programme.

But according to a statement by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), no biodiesel was ever produced at the Green Diesel facility.

“Rivkin created false records and made false statements to conceal his fraudulent claims of biodiesel production, importation and RIN generation,“ the DoJ said.

According to the RFS, authorised US biodiesel producers and importers can generate and attach RINs to biodiesel they produce or import.

As certain companies need RINs to comply with regulatory obligations, they have a significant market value.

A similar sentence was handed out last August in Las Vegas, Nevada, to two men who had also sold bogus RIN credits.